Supposedly OpenSCAD has, in addition to the abstract syntax tree and
raw CSG output format, a TERM output; per the manual:

TERM (the constructive solid geometry expression passed to OpenCSG)

which is confirmed by the source code:

else if (curFormat == FileFormat::TERM) {
CSGTreeEvaluator csgRenderer(tree);
auto root_raw_term = csgRenderer.buildCSGTree(*root_node);
with_output(cmd.is_stdout, filename_str, [root_raw_term](std::ostream & stream) {
if (!root_raw_term || root_raw_term->isEmptySet()) {
stream << "No top-level CSG object\n";
} else {
stream << root_raw_term->dump() << "\n";
}
});
}

However, when trying to play with this, I get the “No top-level CSG
object” whatever the input is:

$ echo "sphere(10);" > a.scad; openscad-nightly a.scad -o - --export-format term
No top-level CSG object

(I am quite confient however that this top-level CSG object is, in
fact, not empty !).

Is there a way to make this work?

I've been using OpenSCAD for very many years and have never come across TERM.

Where in the manual did you find it?

However, I have not tried this, if it is CSG & you are using command line,
try --preview to invoke OpenCSG.

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https://github.com/openscad/openscad/commit/99f24241c5d8f4c09407e7986db30104ef44d0e4

Export TERM & command-line, seems very new, probably untested by the look of
it.

You could try the Development Snapshot:
http://www.openscad.org/downloads.html#snapshots

OpenSCAD Admin - email* me if you need anything,  or if I've done something stupid...

• on the Forum, click on my MichaelAtOz label, there is a link to email me.

Unless specifically shown otherwise above, my contribution is in the Public Domain; to the extent possible under law, I have waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights to this work. Obviously inclusion of works of previous authors is not included in the above.

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I'm intrigued. What do you recon the .TERM data can be used for?
Pretty rendering? Web preview? Something completely else?

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